Giovanni van Bronckhorst reflects on famous Europa League win over Borussia Dortmund as ex-Rangers midfielder hails Dutchman’s tactics

Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst insists his players deserve tremendous credit for recording a famous 4-2 Europa League win over Borussia Dortmund.

In a thrilling, contest, James Tavernier’s penalty, Alfredo Morelos’ close-range finish, John Lundstram’s stunning strike and Dan-Axel Zagadou’s own goal cancelled out strikes from Jude Bellingham and Raphael Guerreiro in the Signal Iduna Park.

It was a night to savour for the Dutchman and his players in Germany as they took a giant stride towards a place in the last-16 of the competition.

Van Bronckhorst said: “It’s a very good result for us against quality opposition, a big team in Europe.

“We wanted to take a positive result back to Glasgow with us to set up a good game next week and I think we achieved that with the two-goal difference.

“I’m really proud of the performance from my players. We know we’re only halfway there, but to come here and score four away goals in Europe is a very good achievement.

“We’ve had many games where I’ve been really happy with the performance, including the home game against Sparta Prague but you want to be successful with your club and your players.

“I’m very happy for my players but also because we represented ourselves really well as a club against a quality side.

“It’s very difficult to win away in Europe, it’s not easy, so as a manager it’s the first time I’ve done that, which shows you how difficult it is.

“We worked hard for this result and it’s a great night but we’re not through to the next round just yet. We know we have to put on another good performance next week as well.

“We watched a lot of their games and knew they were losing a lot of goals recently, so we prepared our game plan well and we held a lot of meetings with the players about how we were going to play.

“We had the right attitude and the belief was there. We have to make sure we make our fans proud of the performances we put in and we definitely did that tonight.”

Former Rangers midfielder Derek McInnes hailed Van Bronckhorst’s tactics after masterminding one of the club’s greatest ever European victories.

Speaking as a pundit on BT Sport, McInnes said: “For me it was Dortmund who unravelled and I’m delighted for Giovanni, who set his team up brilliantly.

“He made the necessary changes at the right time as well and they just kept seeing off the threat of Dortmund. Their press was not that impressive.

“Rangers, when they put their foot on the ball, were able to play around them. It’s not over because of the quality they possess but 4-2 is one hell of a scoreline.”